and turn it towards them, saying repeatedly, ‘O Allah, bear witness!’”

There is also the hadith of the slave girl: “When he asked her, ‘Where is Allah?’ she replied, ‘In heaven.’ He then ordered her emancipation on the grounds of her faith.” Many similar reports exist.

As for the evidence from “consensus,” it is reported in the Sahīh from Anas ibn Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, that Zaynab used to boast to the Prophet’s wives, saying: “Your families married you to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whereas Allah married me to him from above His seven heavens.”

‘Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad and others narrated through authentic chains that Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, “How do we know our Lord?” He replied: “By knowing that He is above His heavens, over His Throne, distinct from His creation. We do not say, as the Jahmiyyah do, that He is here on earth.”

It is also reported through an authentic chain from the imam Sulaymān ibn Harb: “I heard Hammād ibn Zayd mention the Jahmiyyah and say, ‘What they are really trying to say is that there is nothing in heaven.’”

Ibn Abī Hātim narrated that when the Jahmiyyah were mentioned in the presence of Sa‘īd ibn ‘Āmir al-Duba‘ī—the leading scholar of Basra in knowledge and religious devotion—he said: “Their statements are worse than those of the Jews and Christians. The adherents of other religions agree with the Muslims that Allah Most High is over the Throne, yet these people say, ‘There is nothing over the Throne.’”

Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Khuzaymah—the imam of imams—said: “Whoever does not affirm that Allah is above His heavens, over His Throne, distinct from His creation, must be called upon to repent. If he does not repent, he is to be beheaded and then thrown onto a refuse heap, so that neither the people of the qiblah nor those under Muslim protection are troubled by him.”